Where to Buy Anime in the UK (was Anime Online Retailers)

HMV seem to be pricing these upcoming releases inline with Amazon and other online competitors - yet they're still asking £30 apiece for v1 and v2 of Black Butler. Bizarre.
 
VoxPhantom said:
HMV seem to be pricing these upcoming releases inline with Amazon and other online competitors - yet they're still asking £30 apiece for v1 and v2 of Black Butler. Bizarre.
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It's not like Amazon & Zavvi are much better - they have S1 Part 1 & 2 for around £20 each with the Season 1 Collection at £30.

I would think they would only lower the prices for Parts 1 & 2 if they are in a sale which might depend on Manga Entertainment.
 
mangaman74 said:
It's not like Amazon & Zavvi are much better - they have S1 Part 1 & 2 for around £20 each with the Season 1 Collection at £30.

I would think they would only lower the prices for Parts 1 & 2 if they are in a sale which might depend on Manga Entertainment.
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HMV has both volumes at £30, yet Amazon has the complete collection for £28.99. That counts as being 'much better' in my book.
 
Maybe HMV think they stand to make more profit from a few people shelling out more for Black Butler (from in store sales, or people who don't shop around) than they could hope to achieve from extra sales by pricing it in line with Amazon? I'm not sure there's even much point thinking about their reasoning. The thing for any savvy consumer to do is vote with their wallet and buy it from Amazon.
 
VoxPhantom said:
mangaman74 said:
It's not like Amazon & Zavvi are much better - they have S1 Part 1 & 2 for around £20 each with the Season 1 Collection at £30.

I would think they would only lower the prices for Parts 1 & 2 if they are in a sale which might depend on Manga Entertainment.
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HMV has both volumes at £30, yet Amazon has the complete collection for £28.99. That counts as being 'much better' in my book.
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The point I was making is that the 2 parts cost more than the collection. Unless they reduce the price of the 2 parts they are unlikely to sell them (I got part 1 from Zavvi for around £7 some time ago). If they cannot sell them then they are just taking up space.
 
Dunno. They're probably all trying to milk the people who bought part one. £20 for part two or £28 for the full collection, half of which you already own and will have next to no resale value on it's own because of the high price of part two? Not such an easy decision, and the retailer wins either way.
 
In situations like that in the past though, I just buy the collection and sell the old set to somewhere like CEX. I can't think anyone is buying the old collections at full price unless they have some kind of obsessive shelf-filling compulsion and a gigantic house, or they need as much wonky coverart as possible.

When the US companies bring out a complete collection the previous sets tend to swiftly get their prices slashed and vanish from distribution.

R
 
And in that case the retailer has had £28 off you and is happy - More money for them than selling you part deux for £10 or £15. They'll probably offload all their remaining individual volumes to CeX at a later date themselves!
 
Rui said:
When the US companies bring out a complete collection the previous sets tend to swiftly get their prices slashed and vanish from distribution.
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That's what usually happens here, though often before the complete collection comes out. Both volumes of Birdy were under a tenner earlier this year, and I remember seeing the Black Butler sets for around the same price.

I think what we're seeing is a consequence of the Channel Islands VAT loophole being closed. It could be that HMV and The Hut Group aren't discounting as aggressively with older titles any more.
 
What i've started to notice more so with HMV is that the prices of titles have been matching for both online and in store. This going for both old titles and current.

As for Black Butler, I'll hold off for part 2 until I can it around the same price as I did for part 1. I'm in no rush.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I think what we're seeing is a consequence of the Channel Islands VAT loophole being closed. It could be that HMV and The Hut Group aren't discounting as aggressively with older titles any more.
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That must be it, as those Black Butler sets were definitely cheaper when I bought them a little while ago.
 
So I'm starting to buy more and more anime in the UK over the US (due to the price differences and the fact the UK seems to be getting some stuff earlier like Black Lagoon Blu-Ray) and I've been looking at anime-on-line.

How are anime-on-line with pre-orders? Do they ship them out early or on release? Hopefully it's not as bad as Zavvi seem to be where they ship days after the release date.

Thanks for the future answers.
 
Have you really had bad experiences with Zavvi? I've found them to be OK for preorders, but terrible for stuff that is already released.
 
Elaniel said:
So I'm starting to buy more and more anime in the UK over the US (due to the price differences and the fact the UK seems to be getting some stuff earlier like Black Lagoon Blu-Ray) and I've been looking at anime-on-line.

How are anime-on-line with pre-orders? Do they ship them out early or on release? Hopefully it's not as bad as Zavvi seem to be where they ship days after the release date.

Thanks for the future answers.
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I've always found Zavvi to be... erratic. A good example is my pre-orders for the previous two Ghibli Blu-Rays, Whisper of the Heart and Arrietty. WotH was despatched a week before the release date and Arrietty a week after the release date (and a week after taking the money for it. :? ) I still use them occasionally, but normally go for HMV.

As for AoL, I don't know yet. I have my first preorder with them for Broken Blade BD so I'll find out soon enough. They just tweeted a pic of the BD so maybe they'll send it out today?
 
I think I have a pending charge on my card from Anime-On-Line for the Broken Blade Blu-ray. According to their site it's out 4th June, while everyone else has it down for 11th June. Either way, it should be shipping out before release date.

Zavvi are useless, by the way. I recommend HMV for pre-orders instead.
 
From the sounds of things for Broken Blade, the DVD they already have stock of to dispatch whereas the Blu-ray was to follow on.

Basing this from their Twitter account.

I pre-order via HMV, then use anyone but play.com mostly for any other orders.
 
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